The various projects continue overnight, and I think I’m finally ready to give Yvonne the first compound bow once she and Aranya return. I still don’t know how strong to make it, but it’s theoretically just a matter of swapping out the arms to adjust the strength of the draw. While that also means having to put the cams back and string it again, I’m pretty sure it’s still a lot more modular than an ordinary bow. Not that I expect Yvonne will need to swap the arms around, but it’s an option.

I settle on what seems like about a fifty pound draw. I’m think that’s pretty strong for on earth, but I have no idea what kind of draw strength actual soldiers used to use. Besides, the draw lessens significantly at the end, so even if it’s a bit stronger than Yvonne is used to, she should be able to draw it and then bring it up to aim.

I even have Tiny web a few circles on some of the trees in his lair to act as targets. I guess I’ll need to add a proper range to the list of things I’d like to make. This should work fine for now, at least.

I guess the three had a bit of a girl’s-night-in last night, as Aranya and Yvonne come back well after dawn. They look more like they slept in a bit, rather than staying up all night. My kobold’s sleeping rhythm is probably a bit shot, but she’s also been transitioning more away from being nocturnal, so maybe not as messed up as I thought.

Whatever the state of her sleep schedule, she seems to have some business with Larx, so Yvonne makes her way on her own towards the library. Teemo is more than happy to interrupt her on the way.

“Heya Yvonne! Anything in specific you wanted to do in the library?”

The birb stops and smiles at him, and offers a hand for him to hop onto. “Nothing in particular, no. Why?”

My Voice grins. “The Boss has a gift for you in the clearing around Tiny’s lair.”

A feathered eyebrow raises as her interest is piqued. “Oh? Did he slay another scythemaw while were we out exploring?”

Teemo laughs and shakes his head, and directs her to a shortcut. “Nothing like that. He’s working on helping gear up the spiderkin and ratkin, which includes a new kind of bow. Since you’re a bit of an expert on the subject, he’d like your help in testing and developing them, going forward.”

Yvonne smirks as she follows the shortcut. “Should I be concerned? He seems to be turning Tarl’s understanding of dungeons on its head, will he do the same for my understanding of archery?”

Teemo chuckles and shrugs. “I dunno? Probably for making a bow, but he seems to think actually using it should be the same. Mostly the same. Maybe. He’s not an archer.”

Yvonne laughs at that as they exit the shortcut, and Tiny gives her a small bow. She gives him a cheerful wave as she looks around, and Teemo directs her attention towards the trees with targets.

“Those are going to be the targets. He’d like you to take a few shots from whatever distance you prefer, just mark your spot on the ground, and then Tiny’ll give you the new bow.”

Yvonne gives Teemo a curious look, but sets about properly stringing her bow. “Why does he want me to start with my usual bow?”

“He calls it a control. It’s a baseline, the thing all the tests will be measured against. No fancy skills or anything, just you and the bow and the arrow… and the tree, I guess.”

Yvonne shrugs and stands, and gets a fair bit of distance from the tree before marking a line on the ground. “Usually I fight a bit closer than this, but for target shooting or ambushes, anything I can take my time with, I like a bit more distance,” she explains as she nocks an arrow, takes aim, and lets it fly. She nails the bull’s-eye, not quite dead center, but definitely where she wants it.

She smiles and sinks a few more arrows in a cluster, forming a very tight group with only one outside the center. Teemo gives the impressed whistle I can’t, and Yvonne looks rightly proud of her skill.

“Welp, you ready for the new bow?”

Yvonne nods vigorously. “Yes. I want to know just what madness he’s come up with this time.”

Without much ceremony, Tiny takes the compound bow from his back, and holds it out to Yvonne. The archer looks at the contraption for a few moments before taking it. “This is a bow?”

Teemo and I both laugh, and I can’t blame her. A normal bow, even a recurve bow looks fairly simple. At its heart, it’s a string and a fancy stick. The compound bow looks like it’s a piece of some complicated rigging. In a sense, it kind of is, come to think of it.

“Yep, that’s it!” manages Teemo with a wide smile, and Yvonne takes her time to examine the strange weapon.

“Grip and rest are obvious enough…” she mutters to herself, talking through her thoughts. “The arms are strange… the entire contraption is made of metal?” Teemo nods, and she looks baffled as she returns to the bow in her hands. “Why are there so many strings? Why are there wheels?”

“The backmost string is the one that does the work. The Wheels give what the Boss calls mechanical advantage. It’s like a block and tackle on a ship,” he explains. Yvonne looks confused at that, and looks over the arms before speaking.

“Is that why it’s metal? I’ve seen sailors move large boxes with ease like that. That kind of force in a bow would need magical wood to not shatter.”

Teemo nods. “They also give another advantage. Go ahead and just pull the string all the way back.”

Yvonne gives him a suspicious look, but does as asked. She doesn’t seem to have any trouble with the draw, so we can probably make a stronger one. Her eyes widen as she gets it most of the way back, and her arm jerks as the cams do their work of making it easier to hold at full draw.

“What did you do?” she asks as she draws the bow past the point of the strength lowering, looking awed.

“The Boss says that’s why the wheels are shaped like they are. They change the force needed at that point, letting you hold the draw of a much heavier bow than you might normally use.”

“What an odd idea for an enchantment,” she says, easing the string back into its default position.

“No magic. This bow is one hundred percent mundane, for now.”

Yvonne’s eyes widen again and she takes another look at the bow in her hands. I’m sure she’s more familiar with the kinds of enchantments bows tend to have, and I can just picture her wondering what they could turn a bow like this into.

“How’s the draw strength on it?”

“Hmm? Oh!” Yvonne shakes herself to focus, remembering why I wanted her help with this. “For most of the draw, it’s a little weaker than my normal bow. I’m a seasoned archer, so I prefer a heavier bow than most. You said Thediem wants to give this to his dwellers?” At Teemo’s nod, she continues. “This strength should be fine. They may want a weaker draw to train with, but the trick to make holding the draw easier will let them use heavier bows than typical archers.”

Teemo grins at that. “That’s the idea! The Boss has another design he was going to try, but decided against it. He says the power puts this one to shame, but it takes a lot longer to load. Why don’t you take a few shots and see how it feels?”

Yvonne nods and takes her stance. She shakes her head with a smile at the full draw, before she takes a shot… and misses the entire target, the arrow embedding into the tree way above where she was aiming.

She laughs at herself and prepares another arrow. “It’s so easy to forget that it still has the full draw strength. I was aiming it like it was a child’s first bow, instead of a standard issue one.”

Fighting her mirth, she takes a bit more time to let her giggles subside before letting the next arrow fly. This one hits dead center, and she soon sprouts an even tighter grouping than with her normal bow, each arrow within the center.

“Holding steady is so simple with the… what did you call them?” she asks, pointing at the pulleys.

“Cams,” answers Teemo.

“Yes, the cams! You’re certain they’re not magic?” she asks with a grin, which Teemo echoes as he nods.

“Absolutely. It’s just a trick of how forces work. Oh, the Boss says he’s having a ratling bring a few other arms for you to try out, to see what kind of draw you prefer. Here, I’ll show you how to get this one taken apart.”

It doesn’t take Teemo long to show her how to take it apart, and seeing the limbs slacken as Yvonne removes them gives me an idea. I might not need to even switch out the limbs to change the strength, at least within a certain range. If I change the angles of the limbs instead, that should adjust how hard it is to draw, and so how much force is delivered. It’d just take some kind of nut on a bolt of some sort to let people adjust the strength, like adjusting the feet of a washing machine.

I won’t be able to change it for this prototype, but it’s something to look into. It might not even be needed for an archery squad, or however many we end up needing, but that kind of adjustability would be great for the small-team archer that Yvonne is, and most adventurers, too.

I let Teemo and Yvonne have fun with archery as I toy with the design. The basic concept seems to have earned an enthusiastic yes from the birdwoman, so all there is now is to iterate on the design and make it more efficient. I know I’ll have at least one eager tester to ensure they’re up to snuff.